In her book Finding Your Way In A Wild New World, Martha teaches the 1st Technology of Magic – Wordlessness – which is all about moving from left brain language-focused consciousness to right-brain “wordless” consciousness. She likens this state of consciousness to tapping into the “energy internet.”

The 2nd Technology of Magic – Oneness – builds upon the first and is all about communicating via the energy internet, which she likens to sending emails. One of the exercises she teaches is about how to become One with inanimate objects – like flatware.

How To Bend A Spoon

To bend metal you wouldn’t otherwise be able to bend with your own strength, Martha recommends getting Wordless, using a series of meditation techniques. She then suggests asking a spoon or fork if it feels like “playing.” If the silverware says “yes,” you use your hands to gently bend the metal as if it’s putty in your hands.

Easier said than done.

I spent six effin’ months with a spoon on my altar, asking it if it wanted to play. Even when it said “yes,” that metal just wasn’t budging, no matter how much muscle I put behind it. And it definitely wasn’t bending like putty in my hands.

When Martha Gave Us Forks

So I was skeptical when Martha handed two quite thick forks to Melanie and I at the ranch and demonstrated how easy it was to bend her fork. (I have to admit that the words “Bugger off, Martha” lovingly floated through my mind.)

Melanie and I closed our eyes.

We got Wordless.

We asked the forks if they wanted to play. Mine said, “Why the hell not?” (Or at least I thought it did, though I’m realizing I’m not very fluent in Fork.)

But those forks weren’t budging. No fork for you, Lissa.

Martha told us to take the forks home with us, to keep practicing, to believe in Magic, and to wait until the forks told us they wanted to play. I pocketed my fork with a bit of a chip on my shoulder.

The Limitation Of My Belief

The other Oneness exercises in Martha’s book focus on communicating with animals, or even people. And I realized that I had no limiting beliefs about the fact that animals and people have consciousness on an energetic level and that, perhaps, we can communicate on that level. So it didn’t surprise me when I had no problem calling in whales or coyotes or kitty cats.

But I did have a limiting belief about communicating energetically with forks or spoons or trees. I get that everything is made of energy and that a metal fork is just as much made of energy as a human or a dolphin. But to me, inanimate objects just felt, well, not to diss forks, but they feel less conscious. When I got honest with myself, I realized I didn’t truly believe I could bend metal.

Maybe Martha could. Maybe she’s just more magical than me. But me… well, I think not.

The Four Minute Mile

Then one Saturday night, shortly after we returned from Martha’s ranch, Melanie texted me a photo. It was her fork – folded all the way in half like a sweet little yoga forward bend.

Suddenly, my belief shifted. If Melanie could do it, surely, so could I! I was at a party when I got the text. My fork bending effort would have to wait until I got home. But as I noodled the fact that Melanie had bent her fork, I thought of the four minute mile.

Nobody thought the human body was capable of running a mile in four minutes. Then in 1954, Roger Bannister proved the sports physiologists wrong by running the mile in three minutes and fifty-nine seconds for the first time in recorded history. Suddenly, the worldwide belief that running a sub-four minute mile was physiologically impossible disappeared. Shortly thereafter, several other runners went on to run a mile in less than four minutes. In one famous race only forty-six days later, Roger Bannister and John Landy both ran the mile in under four minutes, with Bannister winning the race.

Now, with the limiting belief that it was physiologically impossible shattered, virtually every athlete that competes in a world-class event has run the mile in under four minutes. Today’s world record time for the mile is 3:43:15, more than 15 seconds under four minutes.

What Happened To My Fork?

When I went home from the party, I approached my altar, got Wordless, and asked the fork whether it wanted to play in a different way now that my belief had shifted. The fork said, “I thought you’d never ask.”

Then I picked it up, closed my eyes, and bent that fork in half effortlessly. It was like cutting into softened butter.

I then went on a rampage around the house, finding increasingly thicker and thicker silverware. All of them wanted to play, and I was bending forks and spoons willy nilly until my husband banned me from the silverware drawer and declared me the flatware’s nemesis.

Why bother bending silverware? Is it anything other than a cool parlor trick? What I experienced led me to a state of awe, in which I reveled in the glory of all I don’t understand and can’t truly explain. If forks decide they want to play, and if it’s possible to call in the whales, who’s to say that miracles can’t happen everyday?

What Do You Believe?

The whole experience not only reinforced the sense that we really are energetic beings, capable of performing magical, unexplainable acts when we tap into the Oneness, but that our beliefs shape our reality.

If, for example, you believe a health condition is “chronic,” “incurable,” or “terminal,” it probably will be. If, however, you’re willing to shift your belief system, ask your body if it wants to play, and surrender yourself to the idea that spontaneous remission could be possible, you just might make miracles happen.

So tell us, what do YOU believe? Does this all sound like crazy talk? Or have you had similar magical experiences in the energetic realm?

Lissa! This so just awesome!!! Love it! We need to start looking at our limited beliefs and focus on what we really know. I have just experimented with bending a fork as a new thing this week so I’m really excited that you can do it!! And what would be defined as a coincidence I see as a sign that I read your blog this very week. How cool is that?! I got reinforced that I can do it as well!! Thank you!!! Love you blog!!!! Lots of love and light and thank you for being you!!

I’m glad you wrote this! I played around with silverware a few months ago like Martha said, but without much success. I had a little bending, but it never seemed effortless. Do you know the stick the penny to the wall trick? Sometimes, I ask the penny to stick to the wall, and it won’t stay at all. Sometimes, it stays for a few seconds, sometimes, it stays for days, and I’ve also had a few pennies that attached to the wall for well over a year. What are the keys to consistency in all these mysteries? 🙂

LoriRobin

Lissa, when you mentioned Martha’s book several weeks back, I immediately downloaded it on Audible and listened to it while driving to San Diego and back from Palm Springs. Because it moved me so much, I also ordered the hard copy from Amazon. When I tried calling the animals, I sat in a parking lot and playfully asked if any crows would like to come because I’d really love to see them. Within seconds large crows appeared over the roof of the building I was parked in front of. I giggled aloud, “this crap really works”. And I spend a LOT of time going into Wordlessness and Oneness. It all began when you mentioned using Martha’s magic to call home a lost cat (or at least that’s what my post-menopausal foggy memory recollects). Thank you for opening me up to the magic of the ages. My Inner Pilot Light thanks you too!

Awesome! I wanna see a video of this so I know how to do it! Very cool! 🙂

Sarah

Thank you! I truly believe that I can do anything…it’s just that sometimes I listen to the naysayer and lose my power. Here’s hoping…no believing I can reverse my Type1 Diabetes! 😉 and live the life I envision.

I loved : if you can do it so am I. Working on this little trick still. But very open to change my belief. Your success and the success of others is really encourage me. I would like to be able to do this shift now because I really feel I am in a major repairing session. It feels like all the people in the tree of my life (my family tribe : from grand-mother to my daughter’s daughter all the line of life) is in this vibe, it is wanting to happen, to shift. Breathing is really crucial. Thank you. I will let you know when my spoon-friend is ready to play or when I am ready to let it play with me.

Some people think the fork bending is a palor trick but in my heart I feel it shows you just how powerful faith is. If you go to a quiet place, tune in to your higher power, (mine is God), and truely believe that “miracles” happen, you can accomplish ANYTHING in life. Belief and faith are so very important.

Dana Lynn

I truly believe in the magic, it has happened my whole life. I was living in a Crack house, I was a hard core crack/crystal meth addict/alcoholic and I heard the voice, “you deserve a better way of life.” One day I believed it, got instructed to go to the social service office to see if I could get some money to get away from the horrible situation I was in. They said yes, gave it to me that day. I went to the bank to open an account and I got called into an office. This man proceeded to fill out this paper work, which I thought was a bank account form, however to my surprise, he put the papers in front of me and said just sign here for your $2000 line of credit. I walked out of the bank with $2500, that day I left the crack house and started working on a better way of life, that was almost 11 years ago, this July.

What an awesome testimony Lissa! Although I haven’t read any of Martha Beck’s books…I will now! Last year, I read Dr. Dyer’s “Wishes Fulfilled” and also had the audio book to fall asleep with…then I listened to the meditation CD that came with it and started going to sleep stating things as I wanted them to be…manifesting my own destiny. It has been a wild ride and I have seen such an incredible transformation in my life. I will continue to do this also my intuition has been through the roof…I know and see things before they happen, it’s very cool. I have loved reading all of your posts and will definitely be buying Martha Beck’s books!! Thank you so much for sharing Lissa!

Okay … I read this great post a couple days ago and initially thought you meant bending such silverware without using your hands. Today, I was, like, “bending silverware (read: stainless steel-ware) has always been easy.” Just try spooning out one little bit of over-frozen ice cream in a hurry. You’ve got to bend the spoon back to it’s correct shape so your mom, who told you not to eat the ice cream, doesn’t see the evidence of the disobedience ala bent spoon. Of course, I do get the deeper points of your post, and I asked the full moon tonight to play with me and get onto the camera disk in the way I was thinking I would like the photo to look. (I will check the results momentarily).

My question is this: what kind of silverware had/have you been working with? Real silver? I truly do not mean to sound any bit disrespectful, as I love your work and have recommended your website to at least five or six friends that would find you inspiring (and to my sister whose battle with breast cancer involved radiation but not chemotherapy), but I wonder why bending these things has always been easy; I’m not particularly strong. Tomorrow I will try calling out the baby goats for a photo session. I’d like to report my experience, so I hope the comments section is still open tomorrow. But please, do tell me what kind of silverware.

Lissa_Rankin

Dear Patti,
The silverware I’ve been using is stainless and quite thick. For six months, I couldn’t bend it with all my strength or hard ice cream. I’m now playing with silverware about 1/2 inch thick. It’s not budging for me…yet. But the ones I spent 6 months trying to bend now like to play…

Lissa, I loved your post. Thank you so much for the boost of confidence and faith in all of us. I had just read the section in Martha’s book about spoon bending the day before. I couldn’t do it. Then, like magic, your post. “If Lissa can do it, I can too. It IS like the 4 minute mile.” And then I did it! The spoon bent like clay. It was surreal. I did it even with my two littlest kids distracting me. Or, maybe that helped? Anyway, I was super excited! THANK YOU!

Lissa_Rankin

You did it Anne! Isn’t it the coolest feeling???

I’m so excited for you! Go Team!

Guest

I love this post Lissa! SO timely for me too. When you wrote about horse whispering I got so excited too, but this one is right up my alley – I’m a jeweler and I work with metal (and gemstones) all the time. I also make amulets, and now from your post I understand what’s really happening in this process – particularly important is that you recognised the being of the object, and asked its permission to work with you.

This is what I have to do when I aim to make an amulet, and its what the wearer must do when they wear it. Now I don’t have to feel like a total nutter when I explain this to people – I just send them over to read this post – and Martha’s book!

I’m really looking forward to reading your book Mind over Medicine because I’ve been researching this stuff for years – and you’ve done all the work for me now! Thank you for being such a trailblazer my dear!

Guest

I love this post Lissa! SO timely for me too. When you wrote about horse
whispering I got so excited too, but this one is right up my alley – I’m
a jeweler and I work with metal (and gemstones) all the time. I also
make amulets, and now from your post I understand what’s really
happening in this process – particularly important is that you
recognised the being of the object, and asked its permission to work
with you.

This is what I have to do when I aim to make an amulet, and its what
the wearer must do when they wear it. Now I don’t have to feel like a
total nutter when I explain this to people – I just send them over to
read this post – and Martha’s book!

I’m really looking forward to reading your book Mind over Medicine
because I’ve been researching this stuff for years – and you’ve done all
the work for me now! Thank you for being such a trailblazer my dear!

Sheridan Kennedy

I love this post Lissa! SO timely for me too. When you wrote about horse
whispering I got so excited too, but this one is right up my alley – I’m
a jeweler and I work with metal (and gemstones) all the time. I also
make amulets, and now from your post I understand what’s really
happening in this process – particularly important is that you
recognised the being of the object, and asked its permission to work
with you.

This is what I have to do when I aim to make an amulet, and its what
the wearer must do when they wear it. Now I don’t have to feel like a
total nutter when I explain this to people – I just send them over to
read this post – and Martha’s book!

I’m really looking forward to reading your book Mind over Medicine
because I’ve been researching this stuff for years – and you’ve done all
the work for me now! Thank you for being such a trailblazer my dear!

Lissa_Rankin

Ooh- I love that you’re a jeweler applying this to something you wear! Perfect…
Much love
Lissa

Emma French

This is inspiring and serendipitous! I recently wrote a humourous 500-word piece about my relationship with inanimate objects and mentioned that one time, under the
influence of marijuana, my psyche for a few seconds became intimate with the
consciousness of a door handle. As you might expect, it felt terrifyingly dense, and I was very relieved when my brain morphed back into its infinitely preferable, drug-addled human state. I would love you to read the piece – can I email you??
Em xx

Lissa_Rankin

Emma, there’s a contact form on my site. You’re welcome to email anytime!

Oh yes, I have had many experiences like this!! But I never thought of it as wordless (I call it a, “knowing”) Since I can be quite verbose, I like the wordless concept. One experience regarded a seahorse. My mother was terminally ill and told me that one of her most cherished memories was rescuing a marooned little seahorse that had washed up on the shore one day that she was walking on the beach.
About four years after her passing my father got re-married (my mother, I thought would not approve) during the wedding I started feeling sad so I told my 5 year old daughter to come with me to the Breaker’s Hotel gift shop that was oceanfront to help me find something with a seahorse on it. I thought to myself that if I found one it would mean my mother approved of the wedding. Crabs, starfish, dolphins, wales, and every other nautical motif was there, except a seahorse. Disappointed, I went back to the wedding reception in the banquet hall.
During dinner something magical happened. A complete stranger came up to me with a small pink bag. She said, “I never met your mother, nor you, and I know this may seem strange but I would like to give you this gift.” I knew without opening it what it was. Yes…that’s right…a seahorse!! I asked the lady why, and she said she didn’t know anything except that despite driving three hours to the wedding, and risking tardiness she knew she had to stop and buy the step daughter of the man getting married a seahorse. 🙂